Minneapolis man faces assault charge after toddler severely injured

Article by: Matt McKinney

Star Tribune

January 29, 2014 - 5:41 PM

A Minneapolis man is in jail and his daughter is in intensive care after a horrific domestic assault Saturday that left the girl with a severe brain injury and a fractured skull, according to a criminal complaint.

Hussein Osman Birre, 23, was charged Tuesday with first-degree assault and misdemeanor domestic assault in the Jan. 25 attack on the girl and the girl’s mother. He was ordered held in the Hennepin County jail on $500,000 bail.

The 18-month-old child was taken to the pediatric intensive-care unit at Hennepin County Medical Center. No immediate word on her condition was available Wednesday.

According to the complaint, a woman called police Saturday to report that her husband, Birre, had tried to choke her. She fled to a neighbor’s house to call 911, telling the dispatcher she was worried her husband was about to kill their daughter.

Minneapolis police arrived and immediately went to the door of the house where the assault took place, but the door was locked. They knocked and could hear a man inside the house say something unintelligible. Birre then opened the door and tried to close it again, but officers forced their way inside.

Birre, who had a vacuum cleaner cord in his hand, was arrested. Officers found the girl lying on her back, barely responsive and wheezing. She was bleeding from her nose and ears. She vomited as medics arrived to take her to the hospital.

The mother told police she had been choked by Birre, who had said someone was coming after him. He then broke two iPads and a telephone while yelling. He forced the woman into a bathroom and then did it again when she escaped. She said the television volume was on very high and that Birre broke the remote, then hit the girl on the side of her head with the remote.

The woman tried to get the girl away from Birre and pounded on a shared wall with the adjacent apartment, hoping to get some help. She eventually fled the home to call 911. Birre threw a child’s toy at her as she left.

The woman said her daughter was still responsive and moving at that point.

As he was led from the house, Birre said, “She’s an angel. She’s an angel now,” according to police.